Berry, Guhl end seasons at New Castle Semistate

By KATRINA BRANSON - kbranson@shelbynews.com

Shelbyville’s Dillon Berry along with Triton Central’s Matt Guhl competed in semistate for wrestling Saturday morning hosted by New Castle. The two each lost their respective first-round matches, eliminating them from a chance at state this year.

Berry lost to South Dearborn’s Eli Otto in round one by a major decision (11-0).

As a freshman, Berry (23-19) has had more than an impressive season competing in the 106 pound weight class. Although he didn’t advanced to state, he’s already looking ahead to next year.

“I learned that I need to set my hips down instead of getting high sometimes, because when I get high it doesn’t usually go well for me,” said Berry. “As a freshman, making it this far feels pretty good knowing that I should be better next year and, hopefully, I’ll make it farther then.”

The pressure felt while competing at semistate is intense enough, but even more so for a freshman who had never experienced it before.

“I mean coming in as a freshman and handling a big tournament like this in your first year, you never know what to expect,” said Shelbyville head coach Adam Miller. “The competition here is the top of the notch, so I thought we wrestled pretty well. The big thing today is that he took an experience as a freshman, which is hard to do. Some guys don’t ever get here, let alone as a freshman. It’s very special for him and hopefully he soaks it in. Next year we come back, and, hopefully, he makes it to state then as a sophomore.”

Berry and A. Miller have already discussed what the freshman needs to work on. The biggest difference will be made in the weight room.

“It’s one thing we realize we’re kind of lacking on,” said Miller. “Also, just being quicker on our feet. Just the little things, he’s been wrestling a long time so he knows what to do now, so it’s just putting it all together at a different level.”

Triton Central’s Matt Guhl (26-8) was defeated in round one of competition at semistate in his weight class of 182 pounds by Elwood’s Jalen Morgan, who had a 37-5 record going into the match.

Guhl’s run to semistate was impressive, too, considering the junior didn’t even wrestle last year as a sophomore.

“Teammates and friends told me to come back and just told me how fun it would be,” said Guhl. “They convinced me and I made it to semistate, so that’s pretty good. Next year as a senior I want to come back and make it to state.”

“It’s huge to be here,” he said. “The top 64 in the state make it to semistate, so it’s pretty big, and it’s great that he has another year to do it again. He got the feel of the atmosphere this year so next year he won’t have any stage fright, and he’ll just be able to take in the environment.”

T. Miller credits Guhl’s success on the season to his athletic ability and his explosiveness as the junior progressed over the course of the season.

“He’s starting to hit different moves,” said Miller. “He was stuck to just simple moves, but he started working on other options in the middle of the season and kept at it. He pretty much started with arm drag up until sectionals, and then we started to try different techniques.”

As a first-year coach for the Tigers, T. Miller also took away a lot from the experience.

“I learned a lot this year,” he said. “I’ve learned how to talk to the kids and get them to do what I want them to do. You can’t just yell at them all the time, because then they just turn their ears off and don’t listen to you at all. Sometimes you do have to get on them and make sure they’re focused.”

As far as Guhl is concerned, the junior learned a life lesson from his comeback season.

“If anything, I’ve learned that anything can happen,” he said.

Katrina Branson is a Sports writer for The Shelbyville News. Follow Katrina on Twitter @k_b527.